[This is part one of a seriously tl;dr post]
Sometime early on Thursday the 8th, I was told one member of my team (and there are only two of us) was going on Monday to a client site in Nebraska. My boss said he didn't care who went, and even offered to let us duke it out. Was he kidding? Iunno. We had to sort it out quickly because we had to book travel departing just three days' hence. Ultimately, it came down to a coin flip, literally. Which I lost.
I had warned Ape this was a possibility and once I was the designated flyer, we tried to work out a way for her to come with. We are rarely apart and to make matters worse, she was dealing with an arm injury which made it much harder to take care of Creature. A day of frantic fare-searching later, we had our plan. Unlike the five others (!) going from other teams, we would fly to Denver, rent a car, and drive the 5-odd hours into the client site. With Creature.
So, Monday rolls around, and since our flight wasn't leaving until early evening, I went into work to try catching up on stuff for my other client, expecting the week in Nebraska to be focused on that one exclusively. Leaving at noon-ish, I got home and Ape and I tried to get some rest before the evening journey. 7+ hours in the air plus 5 on the ground, not including moving through the airports and a layover in Houston.
Our plan to travel as light as possible and avoid checking bags meant cramming three people's things into two carryons, plus a backback filled mainly with our electronics, and a large baby bag. You'd think we could get through the security line pretty easily. Nope - despite Ape having traveled with the baby only three weeks ago, we looked like a couple of noobs, trying to get each other, the baby and all our crap onto the conveyor belt. A very nice woman behind us, whom I suspect was in First Class, actually began hucking our stuff onto the belt! It was exceedingly nice of her but dang did I feel like a useless Mithra!
To make matters worse, I got to visit the Nudie Scanner 2000. Also, nobody told me that you were supposed to empty your pockets for that, as well as be beltless. A TSA guy followed me in, asked for the contents of my pockets and my belt, then made me parade in front of the "backscatter X-ray imager." Yeah, I don't /care/ what their official position is, they get to play with a nudie scanner all day. /grumble
From this inauspicious beginning, we had a nice flight on a small plane into Houston. We ate during our layover, then boarded a much larger plane for the leg to Denver. This flight, being an evening flight, was about 20% empty, giving us plenty of room. Things were great, until final descent.
In my four decades on this planet, I think I've only experienced mortal terror once. That was on the back of a motorcycle hoping like heck my friend wasn't going to do something boneheaded and dump us. He didn't, but that was really scary. That was also like 10 years ago. The descent into Denver? Thought we were going to die.
I'm no amateur in flight, just in white magery. I've flown transcon, short flights and long, and been in all manner of planes including tiny turboprops. As much as certain rollercoasters unsettle my stomach, airplane turbulence doesn't really bother me. I'd just as soon not have it, but it doesn't usually freak me out. Plus, I have a trick: During shaky flight, look at the crew and other passengers. I'd wager on any given flight around half of the passengers are regular fliers. So if most (or all) of the plane is calm, then the rough air must be OK, right?
Also, most of the turbulence I've been in is when the plane is climbing or dropping through clouds, or passing through a storm. Landing at Denver was different! Because most of this turbulence was much closer to ground level. I'd testify that a lot of the rolling and juking was happening under 200 feet. Close to the ground. Within view of the airport. I didn't like it one bit! Nope! I was too scared to notice that the rest of the plane was pretty sedate...
By the time we got off the plane and to the rental car, it was about 11:30pm, Mountain time. Our poor terrified bodies thought it was approaching 2am, and we still had more than five hours in a car! In which half our stuff didn't fit in the trunk >< The girl at the counter tried to upsell us but all we wanted to spring for was a compact. So we wound up in a 2012 Ford Focus. Nice car but not for suitcases and a stroller.
I'll spare you the details of our drive, because it was dark and the surroundings mostly featureless plains (which we couldn't see anyway). I pretty much gave out at about 3am and Ape had to get us the rest of the way. I was so proud of her, because she hates night driving and she was as bushed as I was. But we made it to the hotel safely.
Despite checking in at about 5 in the morning, we were greeted warmly and were told we had no room, as one of my colleagues told the front desk we weren't coming. Um, what? Also, the hotel was pretty full. Uhh... The girl told us we were getting the last room and so we hoped for the best. I think we were expecting a closet or something, but we somehow wound up in a large room with two queen beds. And a whole 'nother room next to it! And an amazingly comfy bed ^^
So, after getting settled in, I got to sleep for like three hours before meeting the rest of the client strike force in the lobby for the ride to the hospital. I'm gonna skip ahead a lot now, because my days were pretty boring. But I managed to get a couple of lunches with Ape, and after dealing with a work-only mixer for the client and a "team dinner" where Ape was invited, we had a couple of quiet us-only dinners too.
We also got to watch the finale of America's Got Talent (but no sense), in which Team iLuminate lost, placing third or fourth. The finale was between Silhouettes and Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr. He won, and deservedly so, as I thought Silhouettes kinda peaked after their "monument" performance.
Ape spent her days killing time, as this place had Walmart as their big thing. Really. Lots of local shops, a couple chain restaurants, and agriculture. But, she found a library and some nice parks to occupy herself and Creature with.
Eventually, Friday morning came, and with it, our return to Denver. The rest of my colleagues were flying home, wherever that was for each of them, but we had two more days. The drive back to Denver was much, much better than the drive from. We took our time, making a number of stops along the way. Also, we had fantastic weather and could see many interesting sights near and far.
Some rather charming things about our visit: The hospital itself was new and decorated in a definite midwest/Native American style, but aside from that, it reminded me a lot of the hospital I first worked in. I often wish I could return to a clinical setting. And the people in it wore more than just medical hats-most also ran family farms or did other agricultural or hunting related activities. Very self-sufficient types.
An aside: Since a frank chat with Ape a few weeks ago, we've worked out a few things, and I've been able to move myself out of the funk I was in. Being given hope for my dreams really helped stop the nulling. And on this trip, through some surprisingly beautiful (for its simplicity) landscape, I really felt much better emotionally. To the point I wanted to take lots of pictures, which I did. But I'm still physically exhausted, and as some of you know, I'm also a pretty lazy Mithra ^^
A lot of the pics are of various farming scenes - fields, equipment, houses and barns. And some animals: Mooo! There's a bunch of landscape imagery too, with the flatness giving way to hills and rockier terrain as we moved from Nebraska to Wyoming. I kid you not, there were a few times I was wistfully reminded of Meriphataud Mountains.
Cheyenne, Wyoming was very nice after the "quietness" of Nebraska. Although, we passed a number of towns which were a /fraction/ the size of the 5k populace of our original target city. One was under 400 people! And we stopped at a remote outpost for a potty break wherein we were obligated to buy snacks. Which we kinda wanted anyway.
So, Cheyenne... Our target here was a Mexican restaurant called Guadalajara. It was very festively decorated and I have some pics. I also have memories of eating an awesome thing called a tortas. It was a meat-filled sandwich but between the fresh-made bread and the seasoning on the meat, it was amazing!
...つづく (tsuzuku)
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